Outdoor clothes lines have been used traditionally to hang wet clothes in order for the clothes to dry in the atmosphere. Conventional clothes lines are typically static structures with clothes lines extending between two spaced apart poles having cross trees mounted thereon to allow the clothes lines to be spaced horizontally a sufficient distance to allow air to move between the lines to dry the clothes, somewhat similar to the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,898, granted to Patrick McCarthy on Mar. 6, 1984. Such static structures typically have two to four lines extending between opposing cross trees to provide a desired amount of available lines for hanging clothes.
Clothes lines have been formed in compact structures such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,202, granted to Walter Steiner on May 16, 1989, in which the clothes line structure has a single pole with circumferential clothes lines supported in descending tiers to form an umbrella-type of clothes tree on which wet clothes can be hung for drying in the environment. Other similar clothes lines are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,840, granted to Aad Van Deursen on Nov. 5, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 636,510 granted to H. C. Evered on Nov. 7, 1899; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,138, granted to Angelo Leo on Apr. 28, 1959.
Rotating clothes lines are also currently in use in which an endless line is entrained around a pair of vertically oriented pulleys, similar to what is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 55,208, granted on May 29, 1866 to William Orberton. Such vertically oriented pulleys allow for the clothes to be placed on the clothes line adjacent one of the pulleys and then the line is moved to play the clothes thereon outwardly from the site at which the clothes are placed onto the line. Since the vertically oriented pulleys do not have the capacity to allow clothes hung on the clothes line to wrap around the pulley to return on the upper run of the clothes line, clothes can only be placed onto the lower run of the clothes line. Furthermore, the last clothes placed onto the line will be the first clothes taken off of the line.
A number of horizontally oriented pulleys for clothes lines have been conceived over the years, including U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,274, granted to Chester Librett on Dec. 11, 1934; U.S. Pat. No. 1,775,253, granted to Frank Perebenda on Sep. 9, 1930; and U.S. Pat. No. 845,388, granted to Ralph Alpin on Feb. 26, 1907. In these various configurations of clothes lines wrapped around a pair of spaced apart horizontal pulleys, the pulleys do not incorporate structure that would appear to allow the passage of clothes already hung on the clothes line to move around the pulley. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,405,073 granted to Martin Teetor on Jan. 31, 1922, the clothes line engages a pivoted hook that has a lifting member mounted on the lower end thereof. When the dried clothes are returning to the operator at the place the clothes were hung onto the clothes line, the engagement of the clothes line with the hook causes the lifting member to raise and present the dried clothes to the operator and facilitate the removal of the dried clothes from the clothes line.
In U.S. Pat. No. 653,490, granted to Henry Teal on Jul. 1, 1900, the horizontal pulley appears to allow the passage of clothes around the pulley and, thus, enable the utilization of both runs of the clothes line; however, there is no teaching for an operation or structure that would accommodate the engagement of the clothes pins holding the clothes onto the clothes line. Furthermore, there is no teaching for the synchronization of the opposing pulley to allow clothes to wrap around the opposing pulley for a full utilization of the clothes line.
The horizontal clothes line arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,497,280, granted to Fred Kilfoyle on Jun. 10, 1924, solves the problem of accommodating the clothes pins for permitting the wrapping of hanging clothes around the horizontally disposed pulleys by incorporating a suspended clothes hanging device that places the clothes lower than the pulley. In this manner, the clothes can wrap around the pulley without regard to the location of the clothes pins, and this arrangement does not require synchronization of the opposing pulleys.
It would be desirable to provide a clothes line structure that would allow the hanging of clothes onto the clothes line with conventional clothes pins that connect the clothes directly to the clothes line while allowing for the passage of the hanging clothes and the attached clothes pins to move around both of the opposing pulleys, thereby permitting a full use of both runs of the clothes line and also permitting the first clothes hung onto the clothes line to be the first clothes removed from the clothes line. In this arrangement, the driest clothes would be the first clothes removed from the revolving clothes line.